SSgt. Andrew Dunn of Air Force Reserve Command’s 514th Air Mobility Wing at JB McGuire, N.J., and A1C Brian Alfano of the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Squadron in Westhampton are the first two reserve component airmen to graduate a new survival, evasion, resistance, and escape course designed to allow Guardsmen and Reservists to become SERE instructors. The course, dubbed S-V95, took place at Fairchild AFB, Wash. It is designed to qualify these airmen on an abbreviated schedule, without serious disruption to their civilian jobs and family life. “We did six field training trips in three months; active duty does them in six months,” said Dunn. Alfano and Dunn will have the opportunity to travel to other installations to teach SERE techniques to fellow airmen. They will eventually be certified to deploy after additional training. (Fairchild report by SrA. Natacha E. Stannard)
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff touted his highly unusual background for the job as an asset and reaffirmed his commitment to stay apolitical during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 1.